


Interrogatory

by Elfwreck



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Interrogation, Intimidation, Paganism, Threats of Violence, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-28
Updated: 2010-08-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 12:20:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15461229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfwreck/pseuds/Elfwreck
Summary: Red Hood discovers that free access to a friend's house is both convenient and risky.





	Interrogatory

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during Jason's time as Red Hood in Gotham. Part of a series which mostly hasn't been written yet; should work as a standalone anyway.

Jason held the knife steady at Rafael's face. He twisted it so the light flickered off the edge, enjoying Raf's absolute focus on the tip, barely two inches from his left pupil. Raf couldn't see him smile under the hood but Jason knew he could hear the low chuckle, which grew louder as he managed to convert his flinch to a shudder.

Raf *liked* having a pretty face, and that was going to be his undoing. Raf *would* tell him where Briana and the other two girls had been taken for "questioning," because in fifteen minutes, Raf was going to be more afraid of Red Hood than of Angelo El Dorado. In an hour, he could make Raf more afraid of him than of *God*, but he didn't know if he had an hour.

He didn't really know if he had fifteen minutes, but that couldn't be helped. But he wasn't going to waste extra time on a more lasting message, just like he wasn't wasting extra time getting to one of his normal bolt-holes; he was using Linnet's basement because it was the closest secure space to where Bri worked, to where she and her friends didn't show up this evening. Raf and Danny had joked about how one of those three was talking to cops and Tony was going to find out who. Jason knew. *None* of them talked to cops, but Bri talked to *him*, sometimes, and he'd dropped a hint to the CGPD, because while he didn't care fuck-all what drugs they sold to college jerks or corporate wage-slaves, he wasn't letting 'em ship into Gotham in pixie stick wrappers. Three truckloads of white powder in rainbow straws had been impounded, and Bri was *not* going to pay the price for his actions.

So here he was, with Raf duck-taped to a chair in Linnet's basement. Dammit, she said he could build a *bomb* in here, didn't she? Well, she implied he could on his first visit, and she hadn't implied otherwise on either of his return visits. And she didn't say he couldn't bring guests. And anyway, he'd be out of here soon and she'd never know he'd stopped by, and why was he trying to convince himself? No, don't think about her; she's not here. Focus on the creep in front of you, Jason, the one who's silently praying--you can see his jaw working--that you're not going to leave scars.

Heh. Pray harder, fuckwad; it didn't work for the last guy.

Jason trailed the knifetip down Raf's cheek, leaving a thin red beaded line behind.

"And now," Jason said, "you're going to tell me where Tony took those girls. Because if you don't tell me, you're going to be in a lot more pain than they are."

"Dude, I *told* you," he said, voice shaky but not really scared, not yet, "I don't know where Tony works. None of us do." He looked very earnest.

Flicker-fast, Jason sliced at his ear, cutting through the cartilage at the outer fold. Not deep, just a quick slash to let him know this wasn't going to start slow.

Raf howled.

"*FUCK*, man, why'd you do that? I'm telling you the truth!"

Jason grinned, though Raf couldn't see it. He let it come through in his voice. "I believe you. But I bet you know where Tony *probably* works. So think fast, and start talking." Then he caught some of the free-flowing blood on the knife and brought it around to Raf's face, letting him see the red drops glisten and then fall onto his shirt.

Raf was looking less stoic and edging towards panicky, which was where he wanted him.

Then Jason heard footsteps upstairs. Shit. Shit, shit, DAMN, hell fuck. Lin was *home*? Or worse--it could be someone else. Dammit, four other people had keys to this place and why didn't he think of that when he decided to use it? Oh, right, because he thought he'd be here & gone in half an hour. Just his damn luck if Superman decided to visit *now.* No, Superman had a lighter step than that; what he heard wasn't stomping, but it wasn't careful, either.

Raf must've seen him hesitate. He started yelling. "Help! Heeeellp; I'm down here! He's crazy, he CUT me; he's gonna kill me! Heeeelllllllp!"

Jason backhanded him, but the damage was done. The footsteps came over to the basement door. The handle turned, and it opened--Lin stood in the doorway, a walking rainbow lit up by the light over the stairs. She took in the room--Jason, in his hood and full gear, Raf tied to a chair against the wall, everything else untouched--and brought her eyes back to Jason, hard and unsmiling, as she came down the steps.

"You get blood on my altar, you're gonna clean it with your *tongue,*" she said.

Raf jumped in. "Lady, you gotta help me. Throw something at him--get me out of here, I swear I'll make it up to you, he won't hurt you, he never hurts chicks I promise..." Raf continued, telling her what incredible favors he'd do for her and how he'd keep her safe as long as she got him out of here, right now.

He didn't think Lin would believe any of it. At least, he hoped not. But Raf did have a pretty smile, and Lin had *told* him how much she liked pretty boys, and she'd made it pretty clear she wasn't out to clean up the streets. He knew she *hung out * with some of the El Dorado gang, sometimes. And dammit, his chance for rescuing Briana was *shot* if he didn't get out of here soon, and Lin didn't look like she was in a forgiving mood. The more he thought about it, the more coming here seemed like a really stupid idea.

He turned back to Rafael. "Shut. Up," he said in his most menacing voice. Raf shut up, but shot him a look that said, "I'm just gonna be quiet to find out how much trouble you're in."

Lin reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped. Crossed her arms over her chest in a pose that would've done justice to Morticia Adams, if she weren't wearing pastel tie-dye and a peace-symbol headband. Raf must think she was an angel sent to rescue him. She looked at Jason expectantly.

"L--" he started, and cut himself off. Wrong name. "Charlotte. I--"

She cut him off.

"Let. Me. Guess." The words fell from her mouth like stones, small hard things like icicles. "He knows something you want to know. In a hurry. It's very *important.*" She sneered at that, before continuing. "And my home was the closest place you have access to. And you thought. You would be gone. Before I got home. And I wouldn't notice."

She stopped. It took him a moment to realize she was done.

"Yeah, that's... Look, Charlotte, I need to find out--"

She cut him off again.

"And you thought. You'd question him. *Here.* In my *temple* room." She arched her eyebrows, and looked around the room.

Temple room? The basement was a *temple*? Well, shit. Yeah, he'd seen the altar; he knew some Wiccans and knew what that looked like. Hers was a little different, but knife, cup, wand and candles were familiar. And yeah, hippie-pagan art on the walls, everywhere except this corner, which was why he'd put Raf here. And little sconces set in the middle of the other walls, with candles on the edges and... things... in each of them and ohshit, yes, this was a fucking temple and he'd brought in some jackass to cut him up. And he was never going to find Briana *and* he was going to lose Lin, whatever it was he had with Lin and he didn't want to think about that so he focused on Briana, and, shit. He'd really fucked this one up. He glanced over at Rafael, who looked *exultant* and Jason almost *kicked* him before he remembered Lin (Charlotte, think of her as Charlotte in front of the El Dorado clan) was still watching.

"You *imbecile,*" she said, contempt and fury dripping from her voice. He fought not to flinch, and he was really glad for the hood because it meant Raf couldn't see him wince.

"North is for *secrets,*" she hissed at him.

... What?

She pointed to the sunrise picture on one of the walls. "*EAST* is for information. You hold interrogations on *that* wall, you idiot. Don't you know *anything* about energy flows in warded rooms?"

She waited. And put her hands on her hips in exasperation. "Well? *Move* him, dammit!"

And he had never, ever, *ever* been more grateful for the mask, because that meant Raf couldn't tell that his eyes were wide and shocked and filled with wonder, because she *wasn't* going to stop him, and he looked back at Raf and grinned wildly, and Raf couldn't see that but he *could* see the glee in his movements as he yanked the chair out from the wall and dragged it across the floor, over to the other wall, under the huge picture of the sun rising over green hillsides.

Raf turned pale and his eyes filled with fear, and he started begging her when he realized Jason was about to continue where he'd left off. "Lady, Charlotte, no, you can't do this, can't just let him... you gotta get me out of here, Charlotte, please, lady, you wear a *peace* symbol, that has to mean you don't go for violence, and this dude, Red Hood, I don't know how well you know him but he's a pretty violent kinda guy, he *hurts* people, he's crazy, and --"

She walked over to him, smiling gently, and put one finger on his lips. "Ssh." He shushed. She steepled her fingers in front of her chin. When Tim did that it looked like he was plotting world domination, but when she did it, it looked like she was about to say that rainbows were pretty and the world needs more glitter. No trace of the anger she held thirty seconds ago, and no hint of awareness that *torture* was going on in her basement. Her *temple.* And she looked so *sweet*, smiling like that, like she was about to tell Rafael that Red Hood was her cousin or he'd rescued her puppy and so she owed him, and he could see Raf gearing up to explain how dangerous he was, in tiny, condescending words that any three-year-old would understand.

She patted his hair. With her *right* hand, Jason noticed, the one that carried heat. He always paid attention to what hand she used.

"Look around, pretty boy," she said softly. "Does this look like the basement of a sane person?"

And Raf dutifully looked around, took in the artwork and the shrines and the candles and the pentacles, which Raf's Catholic brain had to interpret as sheer evil, and Jason saw his eyes catch on the *drain in the floor,* which plenty of basements had but this one looked sinister, and then her meaning hit him. He looked back at her with growing horror in his eyes.

She leaned down to look at him squarely. "I'm a *witch*, boy, and I make deals with demons for the souls of prettyboys." She smiled broadly, intensely, and stroked the back of his head until he was shuddering. She held his gaze as she trailed her fingertips around to his chin, held him facing her, and dropped the smile to say, carefully, earnestly, "I'm going to leave now, because I'm pretty sure he's in a hurry and I don't want to slow him down. And I suggest you talk to him, quickly, because if east doesn't work, we'll move you to the south, and south is for *fire.*" Then she rested her right palm against his left cheek, and he yelled and yanked his head away, eyes rolling madly.

"You're *crazy*, bitch."

She cackled at that, and a shiver went up Jason's spine. "You better believe it. I'm crazier than he is--" she jerked her head in Jason's direction, "--and if you disappoint him, I'll be *very* unhappy with you." She patted his cheek again, and he flinched, but not fast enough to avoid the heat Jason knew was there.

She walked back up the stairs, turning around when she was halfway up. She looked at Jason, and for once he hoped she could read his expression through the hood, because she'd just handed Raf to him on a fucking silver *plate.* He nodded to her. Marry me, he didn't say. She drummed her fingers on the railing, once, and said, "I meant what I said about the blood. Be careful."

"Yes, *ma'am,*" he said, reverently, because he could not have staged this better if he'd planned it all in advance; Raf was *already* starting to twitch with wanting to talk. She nodded, and walked up the stairs and left. Raf was babbling before the door was shut.

Of course, the first few minutes was Raf demanding to know who 'Charlotte' was and what she could do, and he earned a matching notch on the other ear before Jason got him to focus on Briana again. But he did focus, and told Jason everything he knew, and everything he *suspected*, about where Tony took girls to work them over. And hey, maybe Lin *was* his angel, because Jason didn't have to cut up his face at *all.*


End file.
